Review: SUN TV News' "The Source" with Ezra Levant

Technically, SUN TV News launched today at 4:30 PM (EST) with a profile of its various shows, but it truly took off at 5:00 PM with the first episode of “The Source”, featuring host Ezra Levant. I have to admit it: my expectations for Levant’s show were pessimistic.

In 2008, I wrote a column for The Western Standard’s blog – Levant had sold The Western Standard by that time – titled “Freedom Requires a Better Defence“. The central argument was that Levant’s arguments in favour of freedom were so poor as to leave the undecided thinking that freedom is not defensible. Imagine my horror upon hearing Levant explain, during SUN TV’s 4:30 PM programming profile, that “The Source” would be all “about freedom”. It was a horror that compelled me to watch episode 1 of “The Source”, if only to gauge how badly Levant’s show would undermine the cause of individual freedom. Read more

An Opponent of the Green Party Speaks: Include Elizabeth May in Canada's Leader's Debates

My readers will know that I am currently leader of the Freedom Party of Ontario. As such, I disagree with almost everything Canada’s Green Party – and its leader, Elizabeth May – have to say about how Canada should be governed. I would never vote for a Green candidate, and I honestly believe that, were the Greens ever to form the government of this country, only bad could come of it.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let me get to my point: it is morally wrong, anti-democratic, and a corruption of Canada’s electoral process, for it to be legal for a “Consortium” of privately-owned networks having a state-granted television oligopoly, to exclude Ms May from the coming leader’s debates. And I say that as the person who, arguably, is Canada’s most absolute and outspoken defender of property rights (go ahead, try to prove me wrong…you’ll lose). Read more

Atlas Shrugged Movie in Canada?

Canadians play a significant role in the history of the spread of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism. Yet, as of March 22, 2011, the list of theatres in which “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1” will be screened includes none in Canada. That has to change and, given that “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1” hits the silver screen on April 15, 2011, it has to change now. Read more

Degrees of Freedom?

From time to time, one will see reports that purportedly rank the relative freedom of this globe’s countries (see, for example, the annual “Economic Freedom of the World” report published by Canada’s Fraser Institute; c.f. Peter Jaworski’s “Canada is Free, the U.S is Mostly Free“). However, efforts to generate such reports are founded upon the same flawed understanding of freedom that founds the Rahn Curve (i.e., the idea that, by taxing and spending by just the right percentage of Gross Domestic Product, a country can somehow maximize freedom). Read more

International Free Press Society Sounds Alarm About Suppression of Freedom Party's Anti-Racism Ads

Last Tuesday, January 25, 2011, Freedom Party of Ontario released its latest plank for the October 6, 2011 Ontario provincial general election. Titled “Close Ontario’s Race-based Public Schools“, the plank promises that a Freedom government would close schools like the “Africentric Alternative School” that the Toronto District School Board voted, in 2008, to open…with neither Ontario’s governing Liberals nor the Progressive Conservative opposition doing anything to prevent the school from being opened.

Freedom Party also released three pre-election video ads January 25, 2011 to promote the plank. That evening, I was interviewed by Ryan Doyle and Tarek Fatah on their popular Friendly Fire radio show (CFRB 1010 AM, Toronto, nightly at 7:00 PM). Clearly, the ads, and the plank, were provocative and popular. Within hours, CTV Globemedia Inc. suppressed distribution of the Freedom Party pre-election ads by alleging to YouTube that the ads infringed their copyright. CTV has provided no indication of what they believe constitutes an infringement. However, it is noteworthy that thousands of CTV news clips are available on YouTube channels, including on channels belonging to politicians in the larger parties (e.g., Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae have CTV content on their channels)…yet CTV claims that it will not licence its news content to any political party…and numerous of its clips have been up on other politicians’ YouTube channels for years.

Suppressing the video on YouTube denied Freedom Party significant ability to have the video distribute virally, and to bring attention to the party. Many who had seen the video before CTV had it yanked are outraged. And, in fact, one of the world’s most noteworthy and influential free speech organizations – the International Free Press Society – has just released an official statement expressing concern over CTV’s suppression of Freedom Party’s ad. It is certainly worth a read.

Stay tuned. Freedom Party is currently preparing its own response to CTV’s suppressive action. In the meantime, you can see what CTV was suppressing by viewing Freedom Party’s Close Ontario’s Race-based Public Schools plank, and scrolling to near the bottom of the page, where Freedom Party of Ontario has made it available for your consideration.

Multiculturalism, Islam, and Censorship (was: Why Lars Hedegaard Is Being Tried)

Lars Hedegaard is an author and founder of the Free Press Society in Denmark. Commencing January 24, 2011, he will be tried under Denmark’s law against the expression of “hate speech” for having stated that Muslim families “…rape their own children” and for thereby expressing contempt for a group defined by its faith (note: contrary to ignorant opinion, “Muslim” is a reference to ones religious beliefs, not to ones genetic make-up). Hedegaard has since explained that he did not intend to imply that all Muslim families engage in such conduct. Indeed, Hedegaard and all but the most ignorant of individuals take it as a given that rape does not happen in all Muslim families. And, clearly, neither Hedegaard nor any except the most unjust in society think it right morally to condemn a family for a crime that none of its members have committed. Yet, as insulting and offensive as Hedegaard’s statement was to people who did not give Hedegaard the benefit of the doubt, the fact of the matter is that Hedegaard’s punishment is not truly sought because he expressed a falsehood, offended Muslims, or turned some people against Muslims. His punishment is sought because he dared to think and judge for himself. By doing so, he – wittingly or unwittingly – attacked the foundations of collectivism. Read more

Randy Hillier: his heart's in the Right place, but is he?

Over at the National Post’s blog, Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier writes about his proposal to make a legislator’s pay increases contingent on increases in “the standard of living”. I agree with Hillier’s sentiment – that legislators should be more personally accountable for the harm they cause – but I disagree with his strategy (see a copy my critique of it – which I originally posted to the comments section of Hillier’s post – below). Such, it seems, is often the case: Hillier’s heart seems to be in the right place, but I disagree with his strategy.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this is Hillier’s strategy to bring into the Legislature MPPs who seek less government intervention in the economy. And so, for the first time, I will disclose an until-now never disclosed history of Hillier’s strategy. Read more

Reality Check: Ontario's Liberals and Progressive Conservatives on Global Warming and Climate Change

Many in Ontario believe – or want you to believe – that the provincial Liberals believe climate change to be the result of anthropogenic global warming, and that the Progressive Conservatives deny both anthropogenic global warming and climate change. They believe – or want you to believe – that Ontario’s Liberals want to reduce CO2 emissions in an effort to fight global warming, but that Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives oppose restrictions on CO2 emissions. As the official record quoted in this article will demonstrate, both beliefs are false, but one other official party in Ontario provides hope to voters who have not been drinking from Al Gore’s Kool-Aid pitcher. Read more

Eco-Tax: Tim Hudak's Truth Diversion

On July 1, 2010, consumers began seeing a new fee on the receipts they received when they purchased any of a number of products designated by the government to be on a “Phase 2” list of “municipal hazardous and special waste” (MHSW): such things as thermostats, fire extinguishers, aerosol cans, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, pharmaceuticals, syringes, and mercury switches. The media widely reported that some consumers were upset or confused by what they were seeing on their receipts. Hoping to gain electorally, Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Tim Hudak jumped right in and commenced a months-long campaign of lies and hypocrisy that must not go unaccounted for. And so, I begin. Read more

Ontario's Liberal / Conservative Deficit-Fighting Farce

One can only shake ones head in disbelief. As Ontario’s Liberal and Progressive Conservative MPPs began a 10 week winter vacation they each proposed spending cuts to “fight” the deficit: the government currently adds more than 18 billion to the provincial debt every year.

The Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives proposed essentially the same thing: reviewing Ontario’s agencies, boards, and commissions (the so called “ABCs”), looking for inefficiencies, and then deciding what to do to reduce them (e.g., cuts, mergers of agencies, etc). In the case of the Liberals, they’ve come out with an actual target: a 5% cut. As is the apparent habit of PC leader Tim Hudak, the Progressive Conservatives have not even said how much they would cut, never mind disclosing what they would cut.

That the specifics are entirely missing does not really matter though, because announcing that one is going to “fight” the deficit by making single-digit cuts to ABCs is like announcing that the government will clear over six feet of snow from the streets of Lucan using a window scraper. It can’t be done. Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »